Hope my garden sleeps well...I made them 3 beds!

I have been gone, but have not forgotten you all, not this challenge. I have been pretty busy this week with work, my son's flag football practices and games, CrossFit, Graphic Design and printing of CrossFit packets and new people paperwork (that I had procrastinated on for almost 3 weeks). I have also been preparing foods...all the freaking time! It's getting annoying and I realize why I normally eat like crap. Because it's easy.

I know that it is best to take a weekend and prepare, which I did last weekend and even today. But still there are things you must prepare. Cook some eggs in the am (I did have frozen ones, but those were for snack or low blood sugar times for me). So last week I made the Moroccan Meatballs and those were pretty good, but I was tired of having them for every lunch, so today was still a nice day and I BBQ'd up about two chickens, 4 fish, and some sirloin steak. This should liven up my lunches a bit. I now need to cut up and mix up my vegi-mix for the week but I am SO TIRED!

I have built 3 raised garden beds and over ordered on soil (by only about twice the amount I needed). I was only planning to build 2, but I went back to the hardware store and got more lumber and made a big one 5'x10'...then got my shovel and wheelbarrow and started to move some earth into the beds. I still now have about 2 of my 5 square yards left on my driveway, so if any of you are nearby, just come and take it away.

I got the plans for the garden beds from Sunset Magazine and you can see the easy instructions right here. They look real nice and are easy to make--even a wimpy dad can build 1, or 2, or 3 even!


So that's it for now...I gotta start thinking of what to put in the gardens and how to keep my 3 stupid dogs out.

Failing To Prepare is Preparing to Fail

I have had that mantra throughout this first week of my W30 process. I believe this has been on my mind because I ended up diving into this at the last second with my group of CrossFitters at Mahoney CrossFit. I ended up, even though I knew what I was getting into, just not preparing for this new whole food deal. Eggs were easy to do, so I went to those. I didn't have much grass fed proteins, so had shrimp instead. Vegetables  were mainly carrots, celery, asparagus and bell peppers. All of which I had on hand. I couldn't clear the cupboards because my wife does daycare and is required by the FDA to have sugar and carbs galore (and beans) as a staple to the food for the children she watches.

This was why she was not on board with me for this (I am not going to say the D word) diet (damnit, I said it anyway)! So the Whole30 "D-word" is going to be a struggle for me and has been for my first week. After the first day, I did end up going shopping and picked up some items I will need for my new way of eating. Two things I am having trouble with is finding Coconut Oil and Ghee...sorry, but WTF is GHEE? I did end up finding the special butter that was asked of us, but have only used it to prepare for one meal. Since I no longer eat bread, cutting butter has been pretty easy.

Some of the new foods that have been saviors to me have been:

• Asparagus
• Bell Peppers (red, yellow, and orange)--never cared for them before
• Eggs
• Sweet Potatoes--Used to love them, now not so much since it's the only real starch I can eat. I don't want sweet flavor, I want salty greasy crap.
• Shrimp

Of course I eat other things, but these seem to be my mainstays, but I am beginning to get tired of all these items all ready. I have to prepare different foods to get me through this next week. 

So yesterday (SUNDAY), I ended up preparing a bunch of stuff:

• Moroccan Meatballs http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2009/03/05/mmmmm-moroccan-meatballs/ 
• BBQ'ing (in the rain--it's Oregon...that is what we get in spring and winter and summer, but not so much in the fall oddly enough).
• I BBQ'ed some Grass Fed Longhorn steaks
• and BBQ'ed up some chicken tenderloins.

Moroccan Meatballs (I made with Ground Turkey though)

Then packaged all those items into single proportions to take to work with me, have a quick breakfast or dinner.

So that is it for now. 

-theDUKE-

Damn Carl's Jr and My Mouth! (W30d4)

So it's day FOUR and I am already angry at the world for allowing me to do such a "drastic" change in my life as to eat whole foods (not processed).


I come home from work, prepare my lunch for tomorrow and don't have the energy to make a dinner for the family. I am run down, not sleeping well and just a plain old dickhead. The wife didn't want to cook either because she was not feeling well either (that time of her month plus alergies).


I did need to get more groceries though for breakfasts and other meals and since I was the only one on this Whole30 diet thingy, I needed to get stuff for me. I told the family that I wasn't going to cook and that I was headed out to the store and to go ahead an either cook something or go to Carl's Jr and get themselves some food and don't get anything for me unless they had some Sweet Potato Fries and that I could sure go for some carbs.


I leave and go to the store, come back with $50 of healthy shit. I am low blood suger and already pissed at the world and my family brings home Carl's Jr for dinner. and none for me, that's cool. Oh I was fit to be tied. So angry that I could spit nails (plus add any other angry reference you can think of). But I knew I told them that they coold do it, but I was still mad at them for following my directions and the food smelling so damn good.


Carl's Jr commercial :-(


I ended up having some organic chicken sausage and mashed sweet potato with asparagus, but those burgers smelled so good, I was still mad though and I guess my wife could tell...she ended up going back to the store and getting me some (sweet potato) fries...she does love me. 



NOTE: Our Crossfit group decided to take on this challenge (those who wanted to). The only downfall is that anyone who cheats has to do 100 burpees for each offence in front of the whole group...well, I am a big guy and can only get about 30 done so I basically cannot cheat. Was pretty disappointed when my wife told me she wasn't going to do the challenge with me, but I understood. She does daycare and the FDA requires her to feed the children crud, so it is in the house and too much of a temptation for her and she is pretty sure she won't be able to follow through.

I am guessing that burgers and fries are a big temptation for me and will have to ask them not to do that again. At least around me.

-theDUKE-

...and so it began. (W30d01)

My first post from the Whole30 website forum: posted April 16, 2013
The actual post

Hi all--today is my first day of the Whole30 challenge/program. I only just decided to do this yesterday afternoon. Our CrossFit box has decided to take this on as well, although my goals are pretty life changing for me, I know I have plenty of support.

I am a BIG guy with a BIG gut and butt and a BIG appetite. I am also pretty sick because of my food choices over the past oh....35 years or so. High blood pressure, Type 2 Diabetes, Depression & Anxiety, and can't sleep at nights (without meds). So I am ready for a change.

I do have some concerns:

• Sticking to it-although if I goof up, I gotta do 100 burpees for each offense (this may not be the issue after all)
• Wife does daycare and the FDA and State Guidelines require crappy food in the house for the kids. So we have Carbs & Sugars galore and all over the house.
• Lazy-I am just a big ole' fat lazy guy who will prepare the first week and then easily become tired of it the second week. I need to keep my excitement about this change going.

That's about it for now. I hope to keep in touch, meet some new folks and get my rear end in gear so I can stick around on this place called earth and hang with the family.

W30d6—Diary of a Wimpy Dad

Boy I really had to struggle with my title, I was going to try a take-off of the Whole30 thing by saying Whole Grains, Hole45 (I am 45 years old...well close enough). But I decided to take on the Wimpy Dad roll since my daughter just watched that movie and it was kinda fresh in my mind. I never really did consider myself a wimp, but now I am on Day 6 (knock on wood that I continue), I notice I am complaining, and irritable and basically everything one would consider as a wimp.

Yesterday I found me annoying my wife as well as me with my "I can’t have that anymore" comments. Yeah, it bugged me too. I have decided that I am going to migrate away from that comment to something more positive and less annoying like "I don't eat that anymore". It gives me more of a sense of control and not being a little b*tch.

So I just finished making breakfast this morning and since I have been craving carbs, I decided to use my sweet potato mash mix and add 3 organic natural eggs, a butt load of garlic, some red pepper, and onion powder. I did this to try and take some of the sweetness away from the potato. I then took an avocado and mashed it up (see my violent nature here—I freaking mash everything!) I then added some of my fresh salsa I had pre-made (guess it’s not all that fresh after all) as well as some of my asparagus mole and mixed that s**t up big time.  After cooking up the egg-sweet potato mash mix, I then plated it and put my “guacamole” on top and I do have to say...

…that it’s the worst looking pile of crap I have ever made! Don’t just take my word for it, look and judge for yourself.

Crappy Looking Breakfast

Yup—that’s some messed up breakfast my friends. But, since I am diabetic and have already been awake for a couple of hours I decided to eat it anyway. Not all of it though, it was way too much. It wasn’t great, but it also wasn't that bad either. It certainly was not as bad I it looks and I don’t think I will die at this point from it, so I may have dodged a bullet.

Not all my food this past week was horrible. My lunch on day two (at work even) was fantastic…take a look at this.

Nice Looking Lunch Huh?

I got shrimp cooked in extra virgin olive oil with some red peppers, garlic and onion. Plus some fresh cooked asparagus all on top of (you can't see it, but it is there) a mix of cilantro, green onion, avocado, celery, red-orange-yellow bell pepper and cabbage. Now this was spectacular.

Anyway, I need to stop here, I will be posting more lately tonight. I have never thought of blogging before, but I think I may like this. And I am still not throwing up my breakfast. Think I will head out to Lowes and get some soil for our raised garden.

PEACE!

-theDuke-